China Communications Construction Co., Ltd.

Construction Materials Supply Chain

The construction materials supply chain is governed by three structural constraints that make it unlike most industrial systems: the weight-to-value ratio of its primary products — cement, sand, gravel, and concrete — is so unfavorable that transport costs dominate economics and force production to be local; cement kilns cost over two hundred million dollars, run continuously at 1,450 degrees Celsius, and cannot be economically stopped and restarted; and construction-grade sand is being depleted faster than it forms, because desert sand is unusable for concrete and the system depends on finite river and marine deposits.